Computer-based systems and methods configured for one or more technological applications for authorizing a credit card for use by a user

ABSTRACT

A configured application for authorizing a credit card by a user and a method that may include receiving an electronic request to pair a mobile device associated with a user with a credit card of the user. The credit card may include a location tracking circuitry to remotely communicate a location of the credit card to a remote electronic recipient. The location of the credit card may be received by a processor from the remote electronic recipient. A proximity multi-factor authentication may verify that the user is an authorized user of the credit card. The mobile device associated with the user may be paired with the credit card of the user after verifying that the user is the authorized user. The processor may receive the location of the credit card paired with the mobile device from the remote electronic recipient. The location of the credit card may be displayed on a display of the mobile device associated with the user.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the software and dataas described below and in drawings that form a part of this document:Copyright, Capital One Services, LLC., All Rights Reserved.

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present disclosure generally relates to improved computer-basedplatforms/systems, improved computing devices/components and/or improvedcomputing objects configured for one or more novel technologicalapplications for authorizing a credit card for use by a user.

BACKGROUND OF TECHNOLOGY

A computer network platform/system may include a group of computers(e.g., clients, servers, smart routers (e.g., trading smart routers))and other computing hardware devices that are linked together throughone or more communication channels to facilitate communication and/orresource-sharing, via one or more specifically programmed graphical userinterfaces (GUIs) of the present disclosure, among a wide range ofusers.

SUMMARY OF DESCRIBED SUBJECT MATTER

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based method that may include at least thefollowing steps of:

receiving, by a processor, an electronic request to pair a mobile deviceassociated with a user with a credit card of the user, where the creditcard may include a location tracking circuitry that is configured toremotely communicate a location of the credit card to a remoteelectronic recipient;

receiving, by the processor, the location of the credit card from theremote electronic recipient;

utilizing, by the processor, a proximity multi-factor authentication toverify that the user is an authorized user of the credit card;

causing, by the processor, to pair the mobile device associated with theuser with the credit card of the user after verifying that the user isthe authorized user of the credit card;

receiving, by the processor, the location of the credit card paired withthe mobile device from the remote electronic recipient;

causing, by the processor, to display the location of the credit card ona display of the mobile device associated with the user;

determining, by the processor, whether the location of the credit cardis outside of a predefined geographical area; and

deactivating, by the processor, the credit card for use when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based system that includes at least thefollowing components of a memory and at least one processor, where theat least one processor may be configured to:

receive an electronic request to pair a mobile device associated with auser with a credit card of the user, wherein the credit card comprises alocation tracking circuitry that is configured to remotely communicate alocation of the credit card to a remote electronic recipient,

receive the location of the credit card from the remote electronicrecipient,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the useris an authorized user of the credit card,

cause to pair the mobile device associated with the user with the creditcard of the user after verifying that the user is the authorized user ofthe credit card,

receive the location of the credit card paired with the mobile devicefrom the remote electronic recipient,

cause to display the location of the credit card on a display of themobile device associated with the user,

determine whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area, and

deactivate the credit card for use when the location of the credit cardis outside of the predefined geographical area.

In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplarytechnically improved computer-based apparatus that includes at least thefollowing components of a credit card which may include a processor andlocation tracking circuitry configured to remotely communicate alocation of the credit card of a user to a remote electronic recipient.The processor may be configured to:

send an electronic request to pair with a mobile device,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the userof the mobile device is an authorized user of the mobile device,

cause to pair the credit card of the user with the mobile device of theuser after verifying that the user is the authorized user of the mobiledevice,

determine whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area, and

deactivate the credit card for use when the location of the credit cardis outside of the predefined geographical area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the present disclosure can be further explainedwith reference to the attached drawings, wherein like structures arereferred to by like numerals throughout the several views. The drawingsshown are not necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead generallybeing placed upon illustrating the principles of the present disclosure.Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed hereinare not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representativebasis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ one ormore illustrative embodiments.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system for authorizing a use of a creditcard by a user, in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method for authenticatingif a credit card user is an authorized user by pairing the credit cardwith a mobile device, in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method for authenticatingif a mobile device user is an authorized user by pairing the credit cardwith a mobile device, in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system for activating a credit card whenpairing a credit card with a mobile device, in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system for activating a credit card whendetecting that a credit card is within a predefined geographic area, inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of another exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure; and

FIGS. 8 and 9 are diagrams illustrating implementations of cloudcomputing architecture/aspects with respect to which the disclosedtechnology may be specifically configured to operate, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various detailed embodiments of the present disclosure, taken inconjunction with the accompanying figures, are disclosed herein;however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments aremerely illustrative. In addition, each of the examples given inconnection with the various embodiments of the present disclosure isintended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.

Throughout the specification, the following terms take the meaningsexplicitly associated herein, unless the context clearly dictatesotherwise. The phrases “in one embodiment” and “in some embodiments” asused herein do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment(s), thoughit may. Furthermore, the phrases “in another embodiment” and “in someother embodiments” as used herein do not necessarily refer to adifferent embodiment, although it may. Thus, as described below, variousembodiments may be readily combined, without departing from the scope orspirit of the present disclosure.

In addition, the term “based on” is not exclusive and allows for beingbased on additional factors not described, unless the context clearlydictates otherwise. In addition, throughout the specification, themeaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references. The meaningof “in” includes “in” and “on.”

It is understood that at least one aspect/functionality of variousembodiments described herein can be performed in real-time and/ordynamically. As used herein, the term “real-time” is directed to anevent/action that can occur instantaneously or almost instantaneously intime when another event/action has occurred. For example, the “real-timeprocessing,” “real-time computation,” and “real-time execution” allpertain to the performance of a computation during the actual time thatthe related physical process (e.g., a user interacting with anapplication on a mobile device) occurs, in order that results of thecomputation can be used in guiding the physical process.

As used herein, the term “dynamically” and term “automatically,” andtheir logical and/or linguistic relatives and/or derivatives, mean thatcertain events and/or actions can be triggered and/or occur without anyhuman intervention. In some embodiments, events and/or actions inaccordance with the present disclosure can be in real-time and/or basedon a predetermined periodicity of at least one of: nanosecond, severalnanoseconds, millisecond, several milliseconds, second, several seconds,minute, several minutes, hourly, several hours, daily, several days,weekly, monthly, etc.

As used herein, the term “runtime” corresponds to any behavior that isdynamically determined during an execution of a software application orat least a portion of software application.

Embodiments of the present disclosure herein describe systems andmethods for authorizing a credit card for use by a user based onproximity multi-factor authentication (MFA) schemes when pairing thecredit card of the user to a mobile device of the user. The credit cardmay include circuitry, such as location tracking circuitry, forcommunicating a location of the credit card to a remote electronicrecipient, such as a global positioning system, for example. Informationabout the location of the credit card, and the pairing between thecredit card and a mobile device may be communicated over a communicationnetwork, for example, to a financial institution, such as a bank, whichmay remotely decide whether to approve or deny the use of the creditcard by a user.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary system 100 for authorizing a use of a creditcard by a user, in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. System 100 may include a server 101, a mobile device160, a credit card 110 with circuitry 113 disposed therein, and a(client) point-of-sale (POS) terminal 195, all communicating 103 over acommunication network 105. When a credit card user attempts to use acredit card, a financial institution, typically the credit card companyissuing the credit card to the user, may remotely assess viacommunication network 105 whether the user using the credit card is theauthorized user in order to approve the transaction. One or more of theembodiments taught herein leverage the fact that the user of the creditcard may most likely carry or is near to the user's mobile device, suchas a cellphone, tablet, wearable or smartphone, for example, and may usethe proximity of the user's mobile device to the credit card as a partof the authentication process for authorizing the user to use the creditcard to purchase goods or services.

In some embodiments, credit card 110 may include circuitry 113 capableof communicating 132 a location of the credit card with a remoteelectronic recipient 107. Remote electronic recipient 107 may include asatellite of a global positioning system (GPS), a number ofcommunication base stations for location assessment, for example, byusing triangularization techniques, and the like for determining thelocation of the credit card.

Server 101 may include a processor 102 and a memory, such asrandom-access memory (RAM) 104. Server 101 may be operated by thefinancial institution issuing the credit card, and/or by any transactionclearing house used for authorizing the credit card for use.

Credit card 110 may be formed from plastic, metal, or any other suitablematerial. Credit card 110 may include credit card (CC) circuitry 113formed directly therein, and/or disposed therein by gluing, bonding orby any suitable adhesion method for affixing circuitry to the materialof credit card 110. CC circuitry 113 may be configured to utilize anyhardwired circuitry. CC circuitry 113 may be implemented as one or moreintegrated circuit chips, and/or electronic devices, electricallyinterconnected and bonded to a circuit board, for example.

Credit card (CC) circuitry 113 may include a memory 120, a processor125, location tracking circuitry 130, such as a location tracking chip,authentication circuitry 135, communication circuitry and interface 140,and a power source 145. Memory 120 may store code, such as a CCauthentication module 127, that when executed by processor 125 may causeprocessor 125 to implement proximity multi-factor authentication, or anysuitable authentication scheme in pairing with mobile device 160 toverify if a user of credit card 113 is an authorized user of the creditcard so as to approve the transaction when the user attempts to use thecredit card to purchase goods and/or services at POS terminal 195.

In some embodiments, power source 145 may be used to power credit cardcircuitry 113. Power source 145 may include, for example, a battery, asolar cell, and/or any suitable energy harvesting device, capable ofgenerating enough power for powering CC circuitry 113. In otherembodiments, the credit card may be powered upon swiping or inserted thecredit card into a slot in POS terminal 195 such that the power sourcemay be POS terminal 195 itself or any other device into which the creditcard is swiped or inserted. Once powered, the credit card and/or POSterminal 195, may communicate a location of the credit card with theremote electronic recipient.

Location tracking circuitry 130 may include a location tracking chip,for example, which may communicate the location of credit card 110 to aGPS system via satellite 107. Location tracking circuitry 130 may beconfigured to ping the location of the credit card repeatedly or inpredefined time intervals, such as every 5 seconds, for example. Inother embodiments, the location of the credit card and/or the proximityof the credit card to the mobile device may be communicated to mobiledevice circuitry that may be configured to relay the location and/orpairing information to server 101 and/or to use the credit card locationin the authentication schemes for authorizing the credit card for use bythe user.

Mobile device 160 may include mobile device circuitry 165. Mobile devicecircuitry 165 may include a mobile device (MD) processor 170, a memory,such as RAM 180, communication circuitry and interface 185, and anyinput and/or output device, such as a touchscreen display 190. RAM 180may store code, such as an MD authentication module 175, and/or alocation application 176 that when executed by processor 170 may causeprocessor 170 to implement proximity multi-factor authentication, or anyauthentication scheme in pairing with credit card 110 (e.g., credit cardcircuitry 113) to verify if a user of credit card 113 is an authorizeduser of the credit card. In some embodiments, any credit cardapplication running on mobile device 160, such as an applicationsupplied by the financial institution issuing the credit card and/ormanaging the transactions of the credit card user, may include MDauthentication module 175 and/or location application 176 that may relayinformation back to the financial institution (e.g., server 101).

The various embodiments of system 100 taught in FIG. 1 and in thefollowing figures solve the technical problem of ensuring that a creditcard's use may be performed with the authorized user of the credit card,such as by the credit card's account owner. System 100 may use locationtracking of the credit card. The location of the credit card as well asthe location of the credit card relative to the mobile device may beused in the authentication process during the pairing of credit card 110with mobile device 160 when implementing proximity multi-factorauthentication (MFA) schemes, for example to authorize the card for useby the user. In other embodiments, the authentication schemes and/orproximity information related to the successful pairing of the creditcard and the mobile device may be relayed back to server 101 (e.g.,server processor 102) so as to approve transactions for purchasing goodsand/or services with the authorized user's credit card.

In some embodiments, an initial authentication for pairing the creditcard with the mobile device may be implemented by the user contactingthe financial institution from the user's mobile device to initiallyauthorize the pairing of credit card 110 with mobile device 160 so as toreceive pairing approval. In other embodiments, the pairing and/orunpair processes between the credit card and the mobile device may occurautomatically and seamlessly such as without any action on the part ofthe user, particularly if the same mobile device had been previouslypaired with the same credit card in the past. In yet other embodiments,proximity MFA may use biometrics (e.g., fingerprint, voice recognition,etc.) and/or a password entered by the user and/or a swiping of themobile device screen by a finger of the user and/or the proximity of thecredit card to the mobile device or any client device, for example, topair or unpair the credit card with the client.

In some embodiments, server processor 101 may control a credit cardapplication including authentication module 175 and/or locationapplication 176 operating on mobile device 160 via communication network105 so as to display the location of credit card 110 and/or theauthentication status of the credit card to the user on display 190(e.g., via an application running on mobile device 160).

In some embodiments, when the credit card may include a battery as powersource 145, the credit card and the mobile device may be configured topair with the credit card on the fly when the credit card is used duringa transaction, so as to conserve power stored in the battery.

In some embodiments, if the credit card is detected to be used by anunauthorized user at POS terminal 195 using the embodiments taughtherein, the merchant using POS terminal 195, for example, may receive analarm or alert that the user is unauthorized (e.g., an alert on adisplay of POS terminal 195).

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method 200 forauthenticating if a credit card user is an authorized user by pairingthe credit card with a mobile device, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure. Method 200 may be implemented byserver processor 102 or by processor 170 of mobile device 160.

Method 200 may include receiving 205 an electronic request to pair amobile device associated with a user with a credit card of the user,where the credit card includes a location tracking circuitry that isconfigured to remotely communicate a location of the credit card to aremote electronic recipient. Method 200 may include receiving 210 thelocation of the credit card from the remote electronic recipient.

Method 200 may include utilizing 215 a proximity multi-factorauthentication to verify that the user is an authorized user of thecredit card, such as by using the location of credit card 110. Method200 may include causing 220 to pair the mobile device associated withthe user with the credit card of the user after verifying that the useris the authorized user of the credit card. Method 200 may includereceiving 225 the location of the credit card paired with the mobiledevice from the remote electronic recipient. Method 200 may includecausing 230 to display the location of the credit card on a display ofthe mobile device associated with the user.

In other embodiments, method 200 may include determining whether thelocation of the credit card is outside of a predefined geographicalarea, and deactivating the credit card for use when the location of thecredit card is outside of the predefined geographical area.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of an exemplary method 250 forauthenticating if a mobile device user is an authorized user by pairingthe credit card with a mobile device, in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure. Method 250 may include remotelycommunicating 155, by location tracking circuitry 130 disposed in creditcard 110 of a user, a location of the credit card to a remote electronicrecipient, such as satellite 107 of a GPS system.

Method 250 may include sending 260, implemented by processor 125disposed in credit card circuitry 113 of credit card 110, an electronicrequest to pair with a mobile device. Method 250 may include utilizing265 by processor 125 a proximity multi-factor authentication to verifythat the user of the mobile device is an authorized user of the mobiledevice. Method 250 may include causing 270 by processor 125 to pair thecredit card of the user with the mobile device of the user afterverifying that the user is the authorized user of the mobile device.

In other embodiments, method 250 may include determining whether thelocation of the credit card is outside of a predefined geographicalarea, and deactivating the credit card for use when the location of thecredit card is outside of the predefined geographical area.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a system 300 for activating a credit cardwhen pairing credit card 110 with mobile device 160, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the present disclosure. The user typicallycarries the user's mobile device. In this exemplary embodiment, toactivate a credit card for use by an authorized user, communicationcircuitry 140 of credit card 110 may search for a mobile device 160 thatthe user has previously paired with (e.g., the user's mobile device) ina region where one or more mobile devices, denoted 160_a, 160_b, . . .160_n, are located for n mobile devices where n is an integer.

Although credit card 110 may detect the multiple mobile devices in thevicinity, only mobile device 160_a of the authorized user may pair 302with credit card 110 whereas the other mobile devices are unable to pair304 with credit card 110. In some embodiments, the pairing betweenmobile device 160_a and credit card 110 may be the result of the userinitiating a new multi-factor authentication (MFA) process, or that therespective processors of the mobile device and/or the credit card mayautomatically allow pairing since the mobile device and the credit cardmay have been previously paired.

In some embodiments, when server processor 101 may detect that creditcard 110 and mobile device 160 have paired, server processor 101 mayauthorize credit card 110 for use by the user. In other embodiments,server processor 101 may detect that the credit card and mobile devicehave paired. However, in order to authorize the credit card for user bythe user, system processor may need to assess that the distance or rangeR as shown in FIG. 4 between credit card 110 and paired mobile device160_a may be less than a predefined range or value. If the range R isgreater than the predefined range value, server processor 101 maydeactivate credit card 110 for use. The predefined range may be threemeters, for example. In some embodiments, the predefined range may becustomizable. In yet other embodiments, the predefined range may bedetermined by the maximum distance that the credit card and mobiledevice are able to pair with one another.

In some embodiments, a credit card application operating on mobiledevice 160 may detect that the credit card location moves just outsideof the predefined range. This may occur in an exemplary scenario wherethe user is in a restaurant sitting on one side of the restaurant andhands the waiter the credit card to pay the bill. The waiter takes thecredit card to swipe at POS terminal 195 located at the other side ofthe restaurant where range R is just outside of the predefined range,and the credit card becomes unauthorized for use. In this exemplaryscenario, a credit card application operating on mobile device 160 maybe configured to alert the user to the transaction attempt by thewaiter, such as in a pop-up window on display 190, for example. Thealert may display the location (e.g., the restaurant name) and theamount of the transaction attempt. The credit card application may allowthe user to approve the transaction made by the waiter (e.g., by theuser pushing a button in a pop-up window appearing in the user's mobiledevice display).

In some embodiments, credit card 110 and mobile device 160 may be unableto communicate with server 101 and/or satellite 107 over communicationnetwork 105, for example, when the user is underground in a subwaystation. Yet, in this exemplary scenario, mobile device and credit card110 are still able to pair with one another. If the user tries to usethe credit card in POS terminal 195 while underground, MD authenticationmodule 175 operating in mobile device 160 and/or CC authenticationmodule 127 operating in credit card circuitry 113 alone or in tandem maylocally authorize a transaction by the credit user when the mobiledevice and credit card are paired.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a system 350 for activating a credit cardwhen detecting that credit card 110 is within a predefined geographicarea, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure. When processor 102 of server 101 and/or processor 125 ofcredit card circuitry 113 may detect that credit card 110 is within ageographical area 360 (e.g., as shown, for example, in a geometric areabounded by a circle 365 of a diameter D), credit card 110 may beactivated for use by an authorized user.

However, in the event that location tracking circuitry 130 reports toprocessor 102 and/or processor 125 that credit card 110 has leftgeographic area 360 (e.g., as shown by an arrow 355), authenticationmodule 175, authentication circuitry 135 (e.g., hardware) and/orauthentication module 127 (e.g., software) may deactivate credit card110 for use. In exemplary scenarios, if geographic area 360 is New YorkCity, and the card is mailed to the user at an address in New York Citybut the credit card mistakenly arrives to Philadelphia by the mailcarrier, the credit card may be deactivated. If a thief steals creditcard 110 from the user in New York City and takes it to Los Angeles,e.g. outside of geographical area 360, the credit card may beautomatically deactivated.

In some embodiments, the credit card may be deactivated permanently. Inother embodiments, the credit card may be deactivated for usetemporarily when the location of the credit card is detected to beoutside geographic area 360, and then reactivated for use when thelocation of the credit card is detected as having returned withingeographic area 360. In this case, credit card 110 once insidegeographic area 360 may still need to be paired with mobile device 160in order to be authorized for use in user transactions.

In some embodiments, credit card 110 may include tamper-proofcapabilities. For example, if the pairing device (e.g., circuitry 113)of credit card 110 was tampered and/or removed, for example,authentication circuitry 135 (e.g., hardware) and/or authenticationmodule 127 (e.g., software) may permanently deactivate the credit cardfor use by the user, such that a thief or a criminal may not simplyremove the pairing device. In other embodiments, if the pairing device(e.g., circuitry 113) was altered in any way by a thief or a criminal,so as to cause the credit card to search for another mobile device topair with, authentication circuitry 135 (e.g., hardware) and/orauthentication module 127 (e.g., software) may permanently deactivatethe credit card for use by the user. Device pairing between the creditcard and the user's mobile device may be changed, for example, throughthe user's mobile device and not through credit card circuitrytampering. Similarly, the tamper-proof capabilities describedhereinabove may also prevent the thief or criminal from circumventingdeactivation if credit card 110 is moved outside of geographical area360 as described in FIG. 5.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive, specially programmed computingsystems/platforms with associated devices are configured to operate inthe distributed network environment, communicating with one another overone or more suitable data communication networks (e.g., the Internet,satellite, etc.) and utilizing one or more suitable data communicationprotocols/modes such as, without limitation, IPX/SPX, X.25, AX.25,AppleTalk™, TCP/IP (e.g., HTTP), near-field wireless communication(NFC), RFID, Narrow Band Internet of Things (NBIOT), 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM,GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite, ZigBee, and other suitablecommunication modes. In some embodiments, the NFC can represent ashort-range wireless communications technology in which NFC-enableddevices are “swiped,” “bumped,” “tap” or otherwise moved in closeproximity to communicate. In some embodiments, the NFC could include aset of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distanceof 10 cm or less. In some embodiments, the NFC may operate at 13.56 MHzon ISO/IEC 18000-3 air interface and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to424 kbit/s. In some embodiments, the NFC can involve an initiator and atarget; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power apassive target. In some embodiments, this can enable NFC targets to takevery simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards thatdo not require batteries. In some embodiments, the NFC's peer-to-peercommunication can be conducted when a plurality of NFC-enable devices(e.g., smartphones) within close proximity of each other. Note that anyof the above-mentioned data communication schemes may be used tocommunicate the location of credit card 110 and/or to pair 162 creditcard 110 with mobile device 160 and/or to communicate to server 101information about the pairing and/or location of credit card 110relative to mobile device 160.

The material disclosed herein may be implemented in software or firmwareor a combination of them or as instructions stored on a machine-readablemedium, which may be read and executed by one or more processors. Amachine-readable medium may include any medium and/or mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(e.g., a computing device). For example, a machine-readable medium mayinclude read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magneticdisk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices;electrical, optical, acoustical or other forms of propagated signals(e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), andothers.

As used herein, the terms “computer engine” and “engine” identify atleast one software component and/or a combination of at least onesoftware component and at least one hardware component which aredesigned/programmed/configured to manage/control other software and/orhardware components (such as the libraries, software development kits(SDKs), objects, etc.).

Examples of hardware elements may include processors, microprocessors,circuits, circuit elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors,inductors, and so forth), integrated circuits, application specificintegrated circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digitalsignal processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), logicgates, registers, semiconductor device, chips, microchips, chip sets,and so forth. In some embodiments, the one or more processors may beimplemented as a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC) or ReducedInstruction Set Computer (RISC) processors; x86 instruction setcompatible processors, multi-core, or any other microprocessor orcentral processing unit (CPU). In various implementations, the one ormore processors may be dual-core processor(s), dual-core mobileprocessor(s), and so forth.

Examples of software may include software components, programs,applications, computer programs, application programs, system programs,machine programs, operating system software, middleware, firmware,software modules, routines, subroutines, functions, methods, procedures,software interfaces, application program interfaces (API), instructionsets, computing code, computer code, code segments, computer codesegments, words, values, symbols, or any combination thereof.Determining whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elementsand/or software elements may vary in accordance with any number offactors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heattolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output datarates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or performanceconstraints.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, which when read by amachine causes the machine to fabricate logic to perform the techniquesdescribed herein. Such representations, known as “IP cores” may bestored on a tangible, machine readable medium and supplied to variouscustomers or manufacturing facilities to load into the fabricationmachines that make the logic or processor. Of note, various embodimentsdescribed herein may, of course, be implemented using any appropriatehardware and/or computing software languages (e.g., C++, Objective-C,Swift, Java, JavaScript, Python, Perl, QT, etc.).

In some embodiments, one or more of exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay include or be incorporated, partially or entirely into at least onepersonal computer (PC), laptop computer, ultra-laptop computer, tablet,touch pad, portable computer, handheld computer, palmtop computer,personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, combinationcellular telephone/PDA, television, smart device (e.g., smart phone,smart tablet, smart television, etc.), mobile internet device (MID),messaging device, data communication device, and so forth.

As used herein, term “server” should be understood to refer to a servicepoint which provides processing, database, and communication facilities.By way of example, and not limitation, the term “server” can refer to asingle, physical processor with associated communications and datastorage and database facilities, or it can refer to a networked orclustered complex of processors and associated network and storagedevices, as well as operating software and one or more database systemsand application software that support the services provided by theserver. Cloud servers are examples.

In some embodiments, as detailed herein, one or more of exemplaryinventive computer-based systems/platforms, exemplary inventivecomputer-based devices, and/or exemplary inventive computer-basedcomponents of the present disclosure may obtain, manipulate, transfer,store, transform, generate, and/or output any digital object and/or dataunit (e.g., from inside and/or outside of a particular application) thatcan be in any suitable form such as, without limitation, a file, acontact, a task, an email, a tweet, a map, an entire application (e.g.,a calculator), etc. In some embodiments, as detailed herein, one or moreof exemplary inventive computer-based systems/platforms, exemplaryinventive computer-based devices, and/or exemplary inventivecomputer-based components of the present disclosure may be implementedacross one or more of various computer platforms such as, but notlimited to: (1) AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4; (2) FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD; (3)Linux; (4) Microsoft Windows; (5) OpenVMS; (6) OS X (Mac OS); (7) OS/2;(8) Solaris; (9) Tru64 UNIX; (10) VM; (11) Android; (12) Bada; (13)BlackBerry OS; (14) Firefox OS; (15) iOS; (16) Embedded Linux; (17) PalmOS; (18) Symbian; (19) Tizen; (20) WebOS; (21) Windows Mobile; (22)Windows Phone; (23) Adobe AIR; (24) Adobe Flash; (25) Adobe Shockwave;(26) Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW); (27) Cocoa (API);(28) Cocoa Touch; (29) Java Platforms; (30) JavaFX; (31) JavaFX Mobile;(32) Microsoft XNA; (33) Mono; (34) Mozilla Prism, XUL and XULRunner;(35) .NET Framework; (36) Silverlight; (37) Open Web Platform; (38)Oracle Database; (39) Qt; (40) SAP NetWeaver; (41) Smartface; (42) Vexi;and (43) Windows Runtime.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to utilize hardwired circuitry that may be used inplace of or in combination with software instructions to implementfeatures consistent with principles of the disclosure. Thus,implementations consistent with principles of the disclosure are notlimited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.For example, various embodiments may be embodied in many different waysas a software component such as, without limitation, a stand-alonesoftware package, a combination of software packages, or it may be asoftware package incorporated as a “tool” in a larger software product.

For example, exemplary software specifically programmed in accordancewith one or more principles of the present disclosure may bedownloadable from a network, for example, a website, as a stand-aloneproduct or as an add-in package for installation in an existing softwareapplication. For example, exemplary software specifically programmed inaccordance with one or more principles of the present disclosure mayalso be available as a client-server software application, or as aweb-enabled software application. For example, exemplary softwarespecifically programmed in accordance with one or more principles of thepresent disclosure may also be embodied as a software package installedon a hardware device.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to handle numerous concurrent users that may be, butis not limited to, at least 100 (e.g., but not limited to, 100-999), atleast 1,000 (e.g., but not limited to, 1,000-9,999), at least 10,000(e.g., but not limited to, 10,000-99,999), at least 100,000 (e.g., butnot limited to, 100,000-999,999), at least 1,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 1,000,000-9,999,999), at least 10,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 10,000,000-99,999,999), at least 100,000,000 (e.g., but notlimited to, 100,000,000-999,999,999), at least 1,000,000,000 (e.g., butnot limited to, 1,000,000,000-99,999,999,999), and so on.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to output to distinct, specifically programmedgraphical user interface implementations of the present disclosure(e.g., a desktop, a web app., etc.). In various implementations of thepresent disclosure, a final output may be displayed on a displayingscreen which may be, without limitation, a screen of a computer, ascreen of a mobile device, a virtually generated display, or the like.In various implementations, the display may be a holographic display. Invarious implementations, the display may be a transparent surface thatmay receive a visual projection. Such projections may convey variousforms of information, images, and/or objects. For example, suchprojections may be a visual overlay for a mobile augmented reality (MAR)application.

In some embodiments, exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, exemplary inventive computer-based devices, and/orexemplary inventive computer-based components of the present disclosuremay be configured to be utilized in various applications which mayinclude, but not limited to, gaming, mobile-device games, video chats,video conferences, live video streaming, video streaming and/oraugmented reality applications, mobile-device messenger applications,and others similarly suitable computer-device applications.

As used herein, the term “mobile electronic device,” or the like, mayrefer to any portable electronic device that may or may not be enabledwith location tracking functionality (e.g., MAC address, InternetProtocol (IP) address, or the like). For example, a mobile electronicdevice can include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), Blackberry™, Pager, Smartphone, wearable or anyother reasonable mobile electronic device.

As used herein, terms “proximity detection,” “locating,” “locationdata,” “location information,” and “location tracking” refer to any formof location tracking technology or locating method that can be used toprovide a location of, for example, a particular computingdevice/system/platform of the present disclosure and/or any associatedcomputing devices, based at least in part on one or more of thefollowing techniques/devices, without limitation: accelerometer(s),gyroscope(s), Global Positioning Systems (GPS); GPS accessed usingBluetooth™; GPS accessed using any reasonable form of wireless and/ornon-wireless communication; WiFi™ server location data; Bluetooth™ basedlocation data; triangulation such as, but not limited to, network basedtriangulation, WiFi™ server information based triangulation, Bluetooth™server information based triangulation; Cell Identification basedtriangulation, Enhanced Cell Identification based triangulation,Uplink-Time difference of arrival (U-TDOA) based triangulation, Time ofarrival (TOA) based triangulation, Angle of arrival (AOA) basedtriangulation; techniques and systems using a geographic coordinatesystem such as, but not limited to, longitudinal and latitudinal based,geodesic height based, Cartesian coordinates based; Radio FrequencyIdentification such as, but not limited to, Long range RFID, Short rangeRFID; using any form of RFID tag such as, but not limited to active RFIDtags, passive RFID tags, battery assisted passive RFID tags; or anyother reasonable way to determine location. For ease, at times the abovevariations are not listed or are only partially listed; this is in noway meant to be a limitation. In some embodiments, credit card circuitry113 may include RFID tags.

As used herein, terms “cloud,” “Internet cloud,” “cloud computing,”“cloud architecture,” and similar terms correspond to at least one ofthe following: (1) a large number of computers connected through areal-time communication network (e.g., Internet); (2) providing theability to run a program or application on many connected computers(e.g., physical machines, virtual machines (VMs)) at the same time; (3)network-based services, which appear to be provided by real serverhardware, and are in fact served up by virtual hardware (e.g., virtualservers), simulated by software running on one or more real machines(e.g., allowing to be moved around and scaled up (or down) on the flywithout affecting the end user).

In some embodiments, the exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, the exemplary inventive computer-based devices,and/or the exemplary inventive computer-based components of the presentdisclosure may be configured to securely store and/or transmit data byutilizing one or more of encryption techniques (e.g., private/public keypair, Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), block cipher algorithms(e.g., IDEA, RC2, RCS, CAST and Skipjack), cryptographic hash algorithms(e.g., MDS, RIPEMD-160, RTR0, SHA-1, SHA-2, Tiger (TTH), WHIRLPOOL,RNGs, etc.).

The aforementioned examples are, of course, illustrative and notrestrictive.

As used herein, the term “user” shall have a meaning of at least oneuser. In some embodiments, the terms “user”, “subscriber” “consumer” or“customer” should be understood to refer to a user of an application orapplications as described herein and/or a consumer of data supplied by adata provider. By way of example, and not limitation, the terms “user”or “subscriber” can refer to a person who receives data provided by thedata or service provider over the Internet in a browser session, or canrefer to an automated software application which receives the data andstores or processes the data.

FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform 400 in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. However, not all of these components may be requiredto practice one or more embodiments, and variations in the arrangementand type of the components may be made without departing from the spiritor scope of various embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the exemplary inventive computing devices and/or theexemplary inventive computing components of the exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform 400 may be configured to manage a large number ofmembers and/or concurrent transactions, as detailed herein. In someembodiments, the exemplary computer-based system/platform 400 may bebased on a scalable computer and/or network architecture thatincorporates varies strategies for assessing the data, caching,searching, and/or database connection pooling. An example of thescalable architecture is an architecture that is capable of operatingmultiple servers.

In some embodiments, referring to FIG. 6, members 402-404 (e.g.,clients) of the exemplary computer-based system/platform 400 may includevirtually any computing device capable of receiving and sending amessage over a network (e.g., cloud network), such as network 105, toand from another computing device, such as servers 406 and 407, eachother, and the like. In some embodiments, the member devices 402-404 maybe personal computers, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, and the like. In someembodiments, one or more member devices within member devices 402-404may include computing devices that typically connect using a wirelesscommunications medium such as cell phones, smart phones, pagers, walkietalkies, radio frequency (RF) devices, infrared (IR) devices, CBs,integrated devices combining one or more of the preceding devices, orvirtually any mobile computing device, and the like. In someembodiments, one or more member devices within member devices 402-404may be devices that are capable of connecting using a wired or wirelesscommunication medium such as a PDA, POCKET PC, wearable computer, alaptop, tablet, desktop computer, a netbook, a video game device, apager, a smart phone, an ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC), and/orany other device that is equipped to communicate over a wired and/orwireless communication medium (e.g., NFC, RFID, NBIOT, 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM,GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite, ZigBee, etc.). In some embodiments,one or more member devices within member devices 402-404 may include mayrun one or more applications, such as Internet browsers, mobileapplications, voice calls, video games, videoconferencing, and email,among others. In some embodiments, one or more member devices withinmember devices 402-404 may be configured to receive and to send webpages, and the like. In some embodiments, an exemplary specificallyprogrammed browser application of the present disclosure may beconfigured to receive and display graphics, text, multimedia, and thelike, employing virtually any web based language, including, but notlimited to Standard Generalized Markup Language (SMGL), such asHyperText Markup Language (HTML), a wireless application protocol (WAP),a Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), such as Wireless MarkupLanguage (WML), WMLScript, XML, JavaScript, and the like. In someembodiments, a member device within member devices 402-404 may bespecifically programmed by either Java, .Net, QT, C, C++ and/or othersuitable programming language. In some embodiments, one or more memberdevices within member devices 402-404 may be specifically programmedinclude or execute an application to perform a variety of possibletasks, such as, without limitation, messaging functionality, browsing,searching, playing, streaming or displaying various forms of content,including locally stored or uploaded messages, images and/or video,and/or games.

In some embodiments, the exemplary network 405 may provide networkaccess, data transport and/or other services to any computing devicecoupled to it. In some embodiments, the exemplary network 405 mayinclude and implement at least one specialized network architecture thatmay be based at least in part on one or more standards set by, forexample, without limitation, Global System for Mobile communication(GSM) Association, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) forum. In someembodiments, the exemplary network 405 may implement one or more of aGSM architecture, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) architecture, aUniversal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) architecture, and anevolution of UMTS referred to as Long Term Evolution (LTE). In someembodiments, the exemplary network 405 may include and implement, as analternative or in conjunction with one or more of the above, a WiMAXarchitecture defined by the WiMAX forum. In some embodiments and,optionally, in combination of any embodiment described above or below,the exemplary network 405 may also include, for instance, at least oneof a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet,a virtual LAN (VLAN), an enterprise LAN, a layer 3 virtual privatenetwork (VPN), an enterprise IP network, or any combination thereof. Insome embodiments and, optionally, in combination of any embodimentdescribed above or below, at least one computer network communicationover the exemplary network 405 may be transmitted based at least in parton one of more communication modes such as but not limited to: NFC,RFID, Narrow Band Internet of Things (NBIOT), ZigBee, 3G, 4G, 5G, GSM,GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, CDMA, satellite and any combination thereof. In someembodiments, the exemplary network 405 may also include mass storage,such as network attached storage (NAS), a storage area network (SAN), acontent delivery network (CDN) or other forms of computer ormachine-readable media.

In some embodiments, the exemplary server 406 or the exemplary server407 may be a web server (or a series of servers) running a networkoperating system, examples of which may include but are not limited toMicrosoft Windows Server, Novell NetWare, or Linux. In some embodiments,the exemplary server 406 or the exemplary server 407 may be used forand/or provide cloud and/or network computing. Although not shown inFIG. 6, in some embodiments, the exemplary server 406 or the exemplaryserver 407 may have connections to external systems like email, SMSmessaging, text messaging, ad content providers, etc. Any of thefeatures of the exemplary server 406 may be also implemented in theexemplary server 407 and vice versa.

In some embodiments, one or more of the exemplary servers 406 and 407may be specifically programmed to perform, in non-limiting example, asauthentication servers, search servers, email servers, social networkingservices servers, SMS servers, IM servers, MMS servers, exchangeservers, photo-sharing services servers, advertisement providingservers, financial/banking-related services servers, travel servicesservers, or any similarly suitable service-base servers for users of themember computing devices 401-404.

In some embodiments and, optionally, in combination of any embodimentdescribed above or below, for example, one or more exemplary computingmember devices 402-404, the exemplary server 406, and/or the exemplaryserver 407 may include a specifically programmed software module thatmay be configured to send, process, and receive information using ascripting language, a remote procedure call, an email, a tweet, ShortMessage Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), instantmessaging (IM), internet relay chat (IRC), mIRC, Jabber, an applicationprogramming interface, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) methods,Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), HTTP (HypertextTransfer Protocol), REST (Representational State Transfer), or anycombination thereof.

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of another exemplary computer-basedsystem/platform 500 in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. However, not all of these components may be requiredto practice one or more embodiments, and variations in the arrangementand type of the components may be made without departing from the spiritor scope of various embodiments of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the member computing devices 502 a, 502 b thru 502 n showneach at least includes a computer-readable medium, such as arandom-access memory (RAM) 508 coupled to a processor 510 or FLASHmemory. In some embodiments, the processor 510 may executecomputer-executable program instructions stored in memory 508. In someembodiments, the processor 510 may include a microprocessor, an ASIC,and/or a state machine. In some embodiments, the processor 510 mayinclude, or may be in communication with, media, for examplecomputer-readable media, which stores instructions that, when executedby the processor 510, may cause the processor 510 to perform one or moresteps described herein. In some embodiments, examples ofcomputer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, anelectronic, optical, magnetic, or other storage or transmission devicecapable of providing a processor, such as the processor 510 of client502 a, with computer-readable instructions. In some embodiments, otherexamples of suitable media may include, but are not limited to, a floppydisk, CD-ROM, DVD, magnetic disk, memory chip, ROM, RAM, an ASIC, aconfigured processor, all optical media, all magnetic tape or othermagnetic media, or any other medium from which a computer processor canread instructions. Also, various other forms of computer-readable mediamay transmit or carry instructions to a computer, including a router,private or public network, or other transmission device or channel, bothwired and wireless. In some embodiments, the instructions may comprisecode from any computer-programming language, including, for example, C,C++, Visual Basic, Java, Python, Perl, JavaScript, etc.

In some embodiments, member computing devices 502 a thru 502 n may alsocomprise a number of external or internal devices such as a mouse, aCD-ROM, DVD, a physical or virtual keyboard, a display, a speaker, orother input or output devices. In some embodiments, examples of membercomputing devices 502 a thru 502 n (e.g., clients) may be any type ofprocessor-based platforms that are connected to a network 506 such as,without limitation, personal computers, digital assistants, personaldigital assistants, smart phones, pagers, digital tablets, laptopcomputers, Internet appliances, and other processor-based devices. Insome embodiments, member computing devices 502 a thru 502 n may bespecifically programmed with one or more application programs inaccordance with one or more principles/methodologies detailed herein. Insome embodiments, member computing devices 502 a thru 502 n may operateon any operating system capable of supporting a browser orbrowser-enabled application, such as Microsoft™ Windows™, and/or Linux.In some embodiments, member computing devices 502 a thru 502 n shown mayinclude, for example, personal computers executing a browser applicationprogram such as Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer™, AppleComputer, Inc.'s Safari™, Mozilla Firefox, and/or Opera. In someembodiments, through the member computing client devices 502 a thru 502n, users 512 a through 512 n, for example, may communicate over theexemplary network 506 with each other and/or with other systems and/ordevices coupled to the network 506. As shown in FIG. 7, exemplary serverdevices 504 and 513 may be also coupled to the network 506. In someembodiments, one or more member computing devices 502 a thru 502 n maybe mobile clients.

In some embodiments, at least one database of exemplary databases 507and 515 may be any type of database, including a database managed by adatabase management system (DBMS). In some embodiments, an exemplaryDBMS-managed database may be specifically programmed as an engine thatcontrols organization, storage, management, and/or retrieval of data inthe respective database. In some embodiments, the exemplary DBMS-manageddatabase may be specifically programmed to provide the ability to query,backup and replicate, enforce rules, provide security, compute, performchange and access logging, and/or automate optimization. In someembodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed database may be chosen fromOracle database, IBM DB2, Adaptive Server Enterprise, FileMaker,Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and a NoSQLimplementation. In some embodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed databasemay be specifically programmed to define each respective schema of eachdatabase in the exemplary DBMS, according to a particular database modelof the present disclosure which may include a hierarchical model,network model, relational model, object model, or some other suitableorganization that may result in one or more applicable data structuresthat may include fields, records, files, and/or objects. In someembodiments, the exemplary DBMS-managed database may be specificallyprogrammed to include metadata about the data that is stored.

In some embodiments, the exemplary inventive computer-basedsystems/platforms, the exemplary inventive computer-based devices,and/or the exemplary inventive computer-based components of the presentdisclosure may be specifically configured to operate in an cloudcomputing/architecture such as, but not limiting to: infrastructure aservice (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and/or software as aservice (SaaS). FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate schematics of exemplaryimplementations of the cloud computing/architecture(s) in which theexemplary inventive computer-based systems/platforms, the exemplaryinventive computer-based devices, and/or the exemplary inventivecomputer-based components of the present disclosure may be specificallyconfigured to operate.

In some embodiments, server 101 as shown in FIG. 1 may be equivalent tonetwork servers 406 and 407 of FIG. 6 and servers 504 and 513 of FIG. 7.Server 101 may be a cloud server providing with cloud services as shownFIGS. 8 and 9 used for authorizing a credit card for use by a user inaccordance with the embodiments taught herein above. Similarly, mobiledevice 160 may be represented as one or more client devices 402, 403 and404 in FIG. 6 and/or client devices 502 a, 502 b, . . . , 502 n of FIG.7.

In some embodiments, a method may include receiving, by a processor, anelectronic request to pair a mobile device associated with a user with acredit card of the user, where the credit card may include a locationtracking circuitry that is configured to remotely communicate a locationof the credit card to a remote electronic recipient. The location of thecredit card may be received by the processor from the remote electronicrecipient. A proximity multi-factor authentication may be utilized bythe processor to verify that the user is an authorized user of thecredit card. The processor may cause the mobile device associated withthe user to pair with the credit card of the user after verifying thatthe user is the authorized user of the credit card. The processor mayreceive the location of the credit card paired with the mobile devicefrom the remote electronic recipient. The processor may cause thelocation of the credit card to be displayed on a display of the mobiledevice associated with the user.

In some embodiments, the method may include determining, by theprocessor, whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area, and deactivating, by the processor, thecredit card for use when the location of the credit card is outside ofthe predefined geographical area.

In some embodiments, a method may include remotely communicating, bylocation tracking circuitry disposed in a credit card of a user, alocation of the credit card to a remote electronic recipient. Aprocessor disposed in the credit card may send an electronic request topair with a mobile device. The processor may utilize a proximitymulti-factor authentication to verify that the user of the mobile deviceis an authorized user of the mobile device. The processor may cause thecredit card of the user to pair with the mobile device of the user afterverifying that the user is the authorized user of the mobile device.

In some embodiments, the method may include determining, by theprocessor, whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area; and deactivating the credit card for usewhen the location of the credit card is outside of the predefinedgeographical area.

In some embodiments, a system may include a memory and at least oneprocessor. The at least one processor may be configured to:

receive an electronic request to pair a mobile device associated with auser with a credit card of the user, wherein the credit card comprises alocation tracking circuitry that is configured to remotely communicate alocation of the credit card to a remote electronic recipient,

receive the location of the credit card from the remote electronicrecipient,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the useris an authorized user of the credit card,

cause to pair the mobile device associated with the user with the creditcard of the user after verifying that the user is the authorized user ofthe credit card,

receive the location of the credit card paired with the mobile devicefrom the remote electronic recipient, and

cause to display the location of the credit card on a display of themobile device associated with the user.

In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to determinewhether the location of the credit card is outside of a predefinedgeographical area, and to deactivate the credit card for use when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea.

A credit card may include a processor and location tracking circuitryconfigured to remotely communicate a location of the credit card of auser to a remote electronic recipient. The processor may be configuredto:

send an electronic request to pair with a mobile device,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the userof the mobile device is an authorized user of the mobile device, and

cause to pair the credit card of the user with the mobile device of theuser after verifying that the user is the authorized user of the mobiledevice.

In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to determinewhether the location of the credit card is outside of a predefinedgeographical area, and to deactivate the credit card for use when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea.

In some embodiments, a method may include:

receiving, by a processor, an electronic request to pair a mobile deviceassociated with a user with a credit card of the user;

where the credit card includes a location tracking circuitry that isconfigured to remotely communicate a location of the credit card to aremote electronic recipient;

receiving, by the processor, the location of the credit card from theremote electronic recipient;

utilizing, by the processor, a proximity multi-factor authentication toverify that the user is an authorized user of the credit card;

causing, by the processor, to pair the mobile device associated with theuser with the credit card of the user after verifying that the user isthe authorized user of the credit card;

receiving, by the processor, the location of the credit card paired withthe mobile device from the remote electronic recipient;

causing, by the processor, to display the location of the credit card ona display of the mobile device associated with the user;

determining, by the processor, whether the location of the credit cardis outside of a predefined geographical area; and

deactivating, by the processor, the credit card for use when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea.

In some embodiments, the remote electronic recipient may be a globalpositioning system (GPS).

In some embodiments, the method may include relaying, by the processor,an alert to a merchant over the communication network that the creditcard was deactivated.

In some embodiments, the method may include deactivating, by theprocessor, the credit card for use by the user when the credit card doesnot pair with any mobile device.

In some embodiments, the method may include deactivating, by theprocessor, the credit card for use by the user when the location of thecredit card is outside of a predefined range from the mobile device.

In some embodiments, the predefined range may be 3 meters.

In some embodiments, the method may include alerting the user on adisplay of the mobile device that the credit card is deactivated.

In some embodiments, the method may include allowing the user toauthorize the credit card for use on the display in response to thealert.

In some embodiments, utilizing the proximity multi-factor authenticationmay include initially authenticating the credit card and the mobiledevice of the user for pairing when the user contacts a financialinstitution from the mobile device to request pairing approval.

In some embodiments, causing, by the processor, to pair with the mobiledevice may include automatically pairing the mobile device and thecredit card after the mobile device received the pairing approval.

In some embodiments, a system may include a memory and at least oneprocessor. The at least one processor may be configured to:

receive an electronic request to pair a mobile device associated with auser with a credit card of the user, wherein the credit card comprises alocation tracking circuitry that is configured to remotely communicate alocation of the credit card to a remote electronic recipient,

receive the location of the credit card from the remote electronicrecipient,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the useris an authorized user of the credit card,

cause to pair the mobile device associated with the user with the creditcard of the user after verifying that the user is the authorized user ofthe credit card,

receive the location of the credit card paired with the mobile devicefrom the remote electronic recipient,

cause to display the location of the credit card on a display of themobile device associated with the user.

determine whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area, and

deactivate the credit card for use when the location of the credit cardis outside of the predefined geographical area.

In some embodiments, the at least one processor may include one of aprocessor of a server of a financial institution, or a processor of themobile device communicating with the server over the communicationnetwork.

In some embodiments, the system may include a point-of-sale (POS)terminal associated with a merchant. The processor may be configured torelay an alert to a merchant on the POS terminal that the credit cardwas deactivated.

In some embodiments, a credit card may include a processor and locationtracking circuitry configured to remotely communicate a location of thecredit card of a user to a remote electronic recipient. The processormay be configured to:

send an electronic request to pair with a mobile device,

utilize a proximity multi-factor authentication to verify that the userof the mobile device is an authorized user of the mobile device,

cause to pair the credit card of the user with the mobile device of theuser after verifying that the user is the authorized user of the mobiledevice,

determine whether the location of the credit card is outside of apredefined geographical area, and

deactivate the credit card for use when the location of the credit cardis outside of the predefined geographical area.

In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to deactivate thecredit card for use by the user when the credit card does not pair withany mobile device.

In some embodiments, the processor may be configured to deactivate thecredit card for use by the user when the location of the credit card isoutside of a predefined range from the mobile device.

In some embodiments, the credit card may include a power source forpowering the processor and circuitry in the credit card.

In some embodiments, the power source may be selected from the groupconsisting of a battery, a solar cell, an energy harvesting device, anda point-of-sale (POS) terminal into which the credit card is swiped orinserted.

Any publications cited throughout this document are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entirety. While one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure have been described, it is understood that theseembodiments are illustrative only, and not restrictive, and that manymodifications may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art,including that various embodiments of the inventive methodologies, theinventive systems/platforms, and the inventive devices described hereincan be utilized in any combination with each other. Further still, thevarious steps may be carried out in any desired order (and any desiredsteps may be added and/or any desired steps may be eliminated).

1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a server, over a communicationnetwork, an electronic request to pair a mobile device associated with auser with a credit card of the user; wherein the credit card comprises alocation tracking circuitry disposed within the credit card that isconfigured to remotely communicate a location of the credit card to aremote electronic recipient in a communication; receiving, by theserver, over the communication network, the location of the credit cardfrom the remote electronic recipient; wherein the server, the creditcard, the remote electronic recipient, and the mobile device communicateover the communication network; performing, by the server, over thecommunication network, a proximity multi-factor authentication,utilizing the mobile device, the credit card, or both, to verify thatthe user is an authorized user of the credit card; authorizing, by theserver, over the communication network, a pairing of the mobile deviceassociated with the user with the credit card of the user afterverifying that the user is the authorized user of the credit card;receiving, by the server, over the communication network, the locationof the credit card paired with the mobile device from the remoteelectronic recipient; causing, by the server, over the communicationnetwork, to display the location of the credit card on a display of themobile device associated with the user; determining, by the server, overthe communication network, the location of the credit card with respectto a predefined geographical area based on the communication between thelocation tracking circuitry disposed within the credit card and theremote electronic recipient; and performing, by the server, over thecommunication network, one of: deactivating the credit card when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea based on the communication between the location tracking circuitrydisposed within the credit card and the remote electronic recipient, oractivating the credit card when: 1) the location of the credit card isinside the predefined geographical area based on the communicationbetween the location tracking circuitry disposed within the credit cardand the remote electronic recipient, and 2) the credit card is paired tothe mobile device of the user; wherein the credit card, once activatedinside the predefined geographical area, remains activated, even whenthe credit card and the mobile device lose communication with the serverover the communication network, as long as the credit card and themobile device remain paired.
 2. The method according to claim 1, whereinthe remote electronic recipient is a global positioning system (GPS). 3.The method according to claim 1, further comprising relaying, by theserver, an alert to a merchant over the communication network that thecredit card was deactivated.
 4. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising deactivating, by the server, over the communication network,the credit card for use by the user when the credit card does not pairwith any mobile device.
 5. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising deactivating, by the server, over the communication network,the credit card for use by the user when the location of the credit cardis outside of a predefined range for pairing with the mobile device. 6.The method according to claim 5, wherein the predefined range is 3meters.
 7. The method according to claim 5, further comprising alerting,by the server, over the communication network, the user on a display ofthe mobile device that the credit card is deactivated.
 8. The methodaccording to claim 7, further comprising authorizing, by the server,over the communication network, the credit card for use when the userapproves a transaction on the display in response to the alert.
 9. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein authorizing the pairing comprisesinitially authenticating the credit card and the mobile device of theuser for pairing when the user contacts a financial institution from themobile device to request pairing approval.
 10. The method according toclaim 9, wherein authorizing the pairing comprises automatically pairingthe mobile device and the credit card after the mobile device receivedthe pairing approval.
 11. A server, comprising: a memory, and at leastone processor configured to: receive over a communication network, anelectronic request to pair a mobile device associated with a user with acredit card of the user; wherein the credit card comprises a locationtracking circuitry disposed within the credit card that is configured toremotely communicate a location of the credit card to a remoteelectronic recipient in a communication; receive over the communicationnetwork, the location of the credit card from the remote electronicrecipient; wherein the server, the credit card, the remote electronicrecipient, and the mobile device communicate over the communicationnetwork; perform over the communication network, a proximitymulti-factor authentication, utilizing the mobile device, the creditcard, or both, to verify that the user is an authorized user of thecredit card; authorize over the communication network, a pairing of themobile device associated with the user with the credit card of the userafter verifying that the user is the authorized user of the credit card;receive over the communication network, the location of the credit cardpaired with the mobile device from the remote electronic recipient;cause over the communication network, to display the location of thecredit card on a display of the mobile device associated with the user;determine over the communication network, the location of the creditcard with respect to a predefined geographical area based on thecommunication between the location tracking circuitry disposed withinthe credit card and the remote electronic recipient; and perform, overthe communication network, one of: deactivate the credit card when thelocation of the credit card is outside of the predefined geographicalarea based on the communication between the location tracking circuitrydisposed within the credit card and the remote electronic recipient, oractivate the credit card when: 1) the location of the credit card isinside the predefined geographical area based on the communicationbetween the location tracking circuitry disposed within the credit cardand the remote electronic recipient, and 2) the credit card is paired tothe mobile device of the user wherein the credit card, once activatedinside the predefined geographical area, remains activated, even whenthe credit card and the mobile device lose communication with the serverover the communication network, as long as the credit card and themobile device remain paired.
 12. The server according to claim 11,wherein the remote electronic recipient is a global positioning system(GPS).
 13. The server according to claim 11, further comprising apoint-of-sale (POS) terminal associated with a merchant, and wherein theat least one processor is configured to relay an alert to the POSterminal that the credit card was deactivated.
 14. (canceled) 15.(canceled)
 16. (canceled)
 17. (canceled)
 18. (canceled)
 19. (canceled)20. The server according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processoris further configured to deactivate over the communication network, thecredit card for use by the user when the credit card does not pair withany mobile device.
 21. The server according to claim 11, wherein the atleast one processor is further configured to deactivate over thecommunication network, the credit card for use by the user when thelocation of the credit card is outside of a predefined range for pairingwith the mobile device.
 22. The server according to claim 21, whereinthe predefined range is 3 meters.
 23. The server according to claim 21,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to alert overthe communication network, the user on a display of the mobile devicethat the credit card is deactivated.
 24. The server according to claim23, wherein the at least one processor is further configured toauthorize over the communication network, the credit card for use whenthe user approves a transaction on the display in response to the alert.25. The server according to claim 11, wherein the at least one processoris configured to authorize the pairing by initially authenticating thecredit card and the mobile device of the user for pairing when the usercontacts a financial institution from the mobile device to requestpairing approval.
 26. The server according to claim 25, wherein the atleast one processor is configured to authorize the pairing byautomatically pairing the mobile device and the credit card after themobile device received the pairing approval.